UM gets another quarterback; Golden on local recruiting; Kiper on Fins, draft

Some Wednesday night news:

### On a day UM received a written commitment from Class of 2013 running back Cornelius Elder, the Hurricanes also picked up an oral commitment from Class of 2014 quarterback Alin Edouard from Hialeah High.

He also received offers from Mississippi, Louisiana Lafayette, FIU and Appalachian State and on Wednesday picked up offers Penn State and Boston College. Berman said UM offered him as a quarterback. "He reminds me of Vince Young, the way he can run," Berman said.

He had nine touchdowns and nine interceptions last season, threw for 926 yards and ran for 559.

See our last post for a lot more on Elder.

### Al Golden, asked on Dan Le Batard’s show today about those who say UM should sign more players from Florida than the five it did this month: “They’re absolutely right.”

Golden said he would have “loved” to find a quarterback in Florida but “we got Greg Olsen’s little brother, Kevin [from New Jersey] and I wouldn’t trade him for the world.

“We got the best J.C. tight end in the country [Beau Sandland], who just happens to be in L.A.” and Standish Dobard, a highly-regarded tight end from New Orleans.

Overall, “we had six or seven Florida kids that de-committed from us. When you’re signing 16 kids and six or seven de-commit because of all this [NCAA] nonsense going on, that’s a tough number to recover from.”

### Any day now, the NCAA will release results of the external investigation into what it did improperly in the UM case. When Golden found out about that three weeks ago, “I was angry. I was bitter.”

KIPER THOUGHTS

Among highlights from Mel Kiper’s conference call today:

### He continues to advocate the Dolphins drafting Tennessee receiver Cordarrelle Patterson at No. 12, even though “he did not have dominating performances in a number of games.”

### He said there might be only two, maybe three first-round receivers (Patterson, Cal’s Keenan Allen and West Virginia’s Tavon Austin or Louisiana Tech’s Quinton Patton) but “you could see as many as six, seven go in the second or by early in the third round.”

### He said UF defensive tackle Shariff Floyd “is skyrocketing up the board” and defensive tackle “is flat out loaded” in the draft.

### Kiper said Michigan quarterback and Deerfield Beach native Denard Robinson “looked raw” as a receiver at the Senior Bowl. “He could be a corner, a situational running back, a slot guy, a return man.

“If he runs a great 40, the second round is not out of the realm of possibility. I would rather take Robinson in the second than Pat White. White was a reach. He wasn’t used properly, because he didn’t want to be a receiver; he wanted to be a quarterback. Second or third round for Robinson.”

### Kiper has only two cornerbacks in the first round: Alabama’s Dee Milliner and Mississippi State’s Johnthan Banks, who presumably will buy a vowel after he gets his first NFL contract.

### UF safety Matt Elam “is deserving of being in the late first round discussion.”

### He rates no quarterback in his personal top 25 and projects West Virginia’s Geno Smith and USC’s Matt Barkley will go between 20 and 32.

But “Todd McShay thinks Geno Smith goes in the top 10,” Kiper said. “North Carolina State’s Mike Glennon would not be a stretch if you took him in the late first round.”

### Kiper believes North Carolina running back Giovani Bernard, from St. Thomas Aquinas, could go in the third round: “He can catch the ball, can light up the scoreboard in a variety of ways.”